Amy Ahonen’s black 2005 Jeep Liberty was found abandoned in Clear Creek Canyon near the side of Highway 6 in Jefferson County.

It was near the Mayhem Gulch Trail, a well-traveled scenic route where people often leave their cars to go hiking or rafting.

Amy Ahonen, 37

Ahonen’s roommate, Kim McDaniel, had seen her around 1 p.m. that day, Friday, July 8, 2011, the day before her 38th birthday.

Her sister Andrea Ahonen said Amy was expected at work at Red Lobster at 6 p.m. that day.

A passerby saw Amy’s Jeep on the side of the highway and called the Colorado State Patrol, according to one report.

Officials with the Colorado State Patrol also indicated that she called 911 asking for help with her vehicle that night.

But when a trooper arrived, Ahonen reportedly told him that she didn’t need any help.

That was the last recorded contact with Ahonen. She never made it home.

Ahonen’s roommate reported her missing two days later on Sunday. Jefferson County and Colorado State Patrol officers returned to the area and found her jeep abandoned.

The following day on Monday, Alpine Rescue Team members searched Clear Creek, which was swollen from recent rains and snow melt. The concern was that if Amy accidentally fell into the fast moving creek it would be difficult to find her remains.

Ahonen had moved to Colorado with her husband five years earlier. They were later divorced without having any children.

The circumstances were suspicious to family members. Did she waive off the trooper because a tow truck was on the way? Unfortunately there are only questions and few answers.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.